Audits of the WPCA are a must …

Published 6:47 pm, Thursday, September 27, 2012

Back in April, finance board member John Louizos told city officials "not to wait for the audit" of the transfer station. Install fencing at its rear entrance to prevent illegal dumping immediately, he said.

Well, the city did wait for the audit, which found ... evidence of illegal dumping.

An open gate that allows people to come and go in the middle of the night is not a problem the city should need an audit to fix. But we're now after the fact, long after. The station must be secured as quickly as possible.

But while we are on the subject of audits, the Board of Representatives Operations Committee was to meet last (Thursday) night to discuss whether or not to conduct an audit of the Water Pollution Control Authority. The answer to that is obvious. The Authority is in utter disarray, structurally and financially. The city decided to hold off on an audit in March. Clearly that was a mistake.

At the same time, city officials should "not wait for the audit" to start making changes. Much like the open dump entrance, there are problems at the WPCA that are clear as day.

Most obvious is how the Authority is governed. The city must move to give clear power, and responsibility, to the WPCA board of directors. The vague nature of the WPCA -- not truly independent, not truly an arm of city government -- has led to the current crisis.

But it is not the only cause of the Authority's problems. The make-up of the board must change as well. Half city officials, half community volunteers, the board has allowed the sewage treatment plant to deteriorate with no evident way to pay for needed repairs besides more loans from the city.

But improving the board is not merely a matter of replacing individuals currently on it. The city must establish qualifications for WPCA board membership. It must be occupied by people who have the necessary expertise to adequately oversee this specific, highly technical operation.

The city needs and audit, or audits, to have a clear picture of the depths of the problems at the WPCA, both operational and financial. But it doesn't need outside eyes to tell it that the Authority's governance model simply does not work.

Give the board the power it needs to correctly run the authority, and require that board members have the ability to do that job.